You were
running late. You don’t even know how late. All you know is that you forgot to
set your alarm last night and woke up naturally thirty minutes later than you
were supposed to. And the cherry on top, you almost forgot your costume bag in your
apartment, adding another seven minutes to being late.

His eyes fluttered open. The scent of his wife drifted upon his nose immediately. He blinked a few times, the ceiling decorating his view. It had been exactly 31 days since he wore a faithful ring on his finger. He remembered so, for every night, before his eyes come to a close, he always thought of the times that had passed.

His hands reached out to the left of him, grabbing the empty sheets. What he was searching for was not there. He moved his head to his left. It was empty, like a disappointing box.

Summary: Jongin, the son of a wealthy CEO, and a few of his friends end up interning at the company of an attractive young businesswoman’s company, and you don’t mind having him visit your office occasionally.

i'm so confused that i can't help but ask wth happened that roman reigns isn't popular anymore??

oh sweet summer child

roman reigns’ “popularity” is a very complicated beast. he’s popular in the sense that he is one the wwe’s biggest merch movers, is consistently highlighted in shows and ppvs, and has a pretty decent following among young kids and ladies. which by company standards is enough. but for smart ass fans who think they know everything about wrestling and how the wwe should be run, it’s not.

for what it’s worth, a big part of the blame lies with the wwe. vince mcmahon saw that roman was big, pretty, homegrown and had a family pedigree within the company, and strapped a rocket to him before he was ready. when he was with the shield, he was fine. people loved him as the big silent powerhouse as long as he had the dynamic of seth rollins and dean ambrose to bounce off of, and the crowd went bananas whenever he wrecked shit (they still do, honestly). his problems started when they split about three years ago, and his weaknesses became more apparent. he’s a brilliant athlete and fast learner, but he doesn’t have the agile diverse moveset of some indie worker who’s been wrestling since he was a teenager. he’s also a naturally quiet person who doesn’t do well having to recite long monologues in front of a huge crowds, but the wwe kept on writing bad scripts for him that he didn’t have the mic skills to make work, and the audience ripped him apart for it.

then he got hurt. he spent six months out recovering from hernia surgery, and when he got back he got the superstar of the year award at the slammy’s (which is a fake awards show that supposedly is determined by fan votes). unsurprisingly, the audience called bullshit. it was pretty obvious at that point that the wwe was trying to convince its audience that roman was something that he was not simply by saying so, which pissed a lot of people off. they also were giving him the misguided superman treatment - trying to show the audience that he was dominant and impressive by having him never lose cleanly, but then not giving him any real or consistent character development that would make him a heroic figure. instead, his characterization mostly made him look arrogant and bland.

this is where shit gets weird. roman got better. being dropped into the frying pan at first didn’t agree with him, but he adapted. now he consistently puts on excellent matches with fan favorite wrestlers. the writing of the show has also figured out how to better work with him, by giving him short and sweet promos, and capitalizing on the beastly nature of his physicality and style of wrestling. the writing isn’t perfect, but that’s a problem consistent through all of the wwe’s shows and characters, and isn’t exclusive to roman.

but the audience doesn’t seem to care about any that. or at least, a certain portion of the audience that is very very noisy did not. most people who are actually interested in, you know, enjoying wrestling and having a good time have figured out that they can just relax, watch roman work and cheer him. but there’s a lot of people that are extremely invested in being right, and having already decided on a point of view, don’t want to give up on it. they want want to act like they know more about the wwe than the wwe, and never want to be worked, because who wants to be a mark and admit they’re doing exactly what a big fat company is telling them to do? they insist that roman is still being “shoved down our throats,” that he can’t wrestle, that he’s not worthy of the position he’s in in the company, and they give him endless shit for it. the vitriol spikes during wrestlemania season, which roman has main evented for the past three years, and this year he got the honor of facing the undertaker in what was most likely his last match ever, which sent his hater through the roof. it’s now pretty much expected that whenever roman walks out, he will be faced with a tsunami of boos, and there isn’t a whole lot any one can do to change that.

there’s also a lot of sexism involved. smarks will say shit like “only women like roman, and it’s just because he’s hot,” as though women’s role in the fandom is illegitimate and male fans have never found a female wrestler attractive. like i said, it’s complicated, and it’s at a level now that’s pretty disgusting. kids at wrestling shows who just want to enjoy themselves and cheer for roman end up getting intimidated by older men who shout them down. roman’s older brother just passed away really suddenly and twitter was riddled with assholes saying it should’ve been him instead. but sure, yeah, it’s the “booking” that they hate, and yet you cheer vince mcmahon when he shows up.

sorry i wrote a book as a response, it’s one of the most talked about issues in all of wrestling, and there’s some incredible articles and threads written about it (personal favorites are lady j’s building an empire series which she sadly hasn’t finished yet, and tim kail’s “you will keep booing roman reigns and it will change nothing” which is amazing). and i haven’t even touched the racist aspects of it. a lot of people say that best way to remedy the situation is turn roman heel (make him a bad guy so that the boos will actually be justified). that might have been a viable option maybe a year ago, but the wwe knows what they want from roman now, and they’re getting it. and with the audience acting as predictable as they are now they know exactly how to control them. so one way or another, everyone’s getting worked.

Can you hear it? A voice, booming and boisterous, blowing
in upon the cool winds of autumn. A voice that beckons you to come sit a spell
and play a good ol’ videogame. “They don’t make ‘em like this no more,” it
says. “Well…most don’t. That’s why we need to sell a bunch’a copies, so
they’ll get right to making Zwei 3! Yes siree, with Falcom’s storied lineage of
action RPGs, it’d be a slam dunk! Ghahahaha!” That voice…is my voice, broad
as the sea and hearty as a meal that consists solely of potatoes and slabs of
meat.

That’s right, true believers, it’s Nick, here once again
to share with you the myriad fascinations of working in videogame localization.
If you’ve been keeping up, this is the fourth blog I’ve written about the
upcoming release of Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection. The first entry gave a basic
rundown of what the game is like and what you can expect from it, while the
second entry went into more depth about the localization work and the nuances of
character writing. The third entry was a progress report, detailing where we
were in the QA cycle and why we’d be missing our summer release date.

I think her engagement isn't the problem, you know? As sad as it may sound, I think she would have been sidelined anyway. If anything, she probably would have been more sidelined because she wouldn't even have those panels to talk about. I don't know, I just feel like she is more than just another wife and the setting just doesn't allow her to contribute as much as girls like Kougyoku, for example, who are directly involved in the situation. I'm sorry for the random rant! 2/2

I hope I don’t sound mean but I think people are too harsh on poor Morgiana. She’s not royalty or anything so I think people expect her to do things she can’t in a setting that focuses so heavily on politics and whatnot. Obviously Ohtaka could put more focus on her (I wish, I really love her) but I think a lot of people also have somewhat unrealistic expectations for a character built this way.

The “trophy wife” jokes kind of rub me off the wrong way, I don’t know. I think her engagement isn’t the problem, you know? As sad as it may sound, I think she would have been sidelined anyway. If anything, she probably would have been more sidelined because she wouldn’t even have those panels to talk about. I don’t know, I just feel like she is more than just another wife and the setting just doesn’t allow her to contribute as much as girls like Kougyoku, for example, who are directly involved in the situation. I’m sorry for the random rant!

I agree with you wholeheartedly, anon. I think it’s extremely unreasonable and unfair that Morgiana is constantly being criticized for not hitting a political home run while so many other female were born on third base.

I think she suffers from a problem similar to Mikasa Ackerman from Shingeki no Kyojin in that she’s generally tight-lipped and got a great deal of character development early on in the story. I think more people would be able to see that she’s just as developed as fandom darlings like Kougyoku if her development had been stretched over many story arcs. Of course, that wouldn’t make any narrative sense. It would be silly to have Morgiana dancing for the first time in the World Exploration Arc, or realizing that she didn’t have to ask permission to do something she wants to do just after the battle against the medium.

Realizing you have friends rather than masters who you don’t need to ask permission to hang out with? Experiencing joy and dancing for the first time? Pfffft. That’s not character development! Why look at that skimpy outfit she’s wearing. She’s just a mindless trophy waiting for a man to claim her. *eyeroll*

Even before she came to that realization in Sindria, Morgiana was willing & able to speak freely to a powerful monarch and successfully persuade him to take Alibaba more seriously. That’s a huge step for someone who was still mentally struggling with the notion that she could break free from slavery again just days before she arrived in Balbaad!

I think she gets a lot of flack for being “all brawn and no brains” because she spends so much time with more emotionally volatile male characters who are also seeking to increase their physical combat abilities. The only difference is that she has doesn’t have as many responsibilities to fret over while she’s training. She shouldn’t be faulted for not being born with the burdensome responsibilities that Aladdin, Alibaba and Hakuuryu do.

Why isn’t it enough just to get over the psychological trauma associated with being a slave and managing to live a normal, happy life?

(source)

Masrur essentially does the same thing over the span of two standalone mangas. I’ve never heard anyone criticize him for being one-dimensional or lacking character development.
I don’t know, maybe people have criticized him for it, or think that he’s a one-dimensional character and are fine with it. I think he’s a very complex, well-developed, insightful character. Honestly, Masrur seems to be the only person in the manga who has consistently able to give sound personal and political advice to anyone who bothers to ask him about such things. Ja’far and the magi have their moments, but I think Masrur still comes out on top when you consider how many times people have come to him for advice and how many times he gave them good advice.

That’s an impressive amount of emotional intelligence for well-educated IRL early twenty-something in our day and age to have, nevermind a former slave with little formal education in an overwhelmingly patriarchal society! If Kougyoku, who possessed a superior formal education and carried a great deal of responsibility as a princess and king vessel, was that emotionally intelligent and mature, she never would have fallen prey to Sinbad’s manipulation. Her character has developed significantly since the made her debut, but she’s still suffers from a bit of naivete with regard to politics and a lack of self-awareness when it comes to romance. I’m not claiming that such shortcomings are evidence of Kougyoku being a poorly developed character, but I think it underscores the value of knowing what you want out of life and being realistic about the things you need to do to get there. That applies to commoners and empresses alike.

For as much as people praise Magi the Labyrinth of Magic for it’s complex, grey characters, the notion that complex characters who spend their early years fighting to save themselves and the world would never want to settle down to a peaceful life akin to the people they fought so hard to save is patently ridiculous. Isn’t that what Ja’far spent much of his life being thankful for?

Yes, he has a busy job doing lots of paperwork and keeping Sinbad out of trouble, but I fail to see how deciding for yourself that you want to act as a support system for your childhood savior for the rest of your life diminishes the character’s complexity. That’s what both Ja’far and Morgiana are doing. Morgiana went even further by acting as bot watchdog and emotional support system for the person she had finally realized that she truly loved.

I triple double dog dare you or anyone else reading this to roll up on earnest SinJa shippers like @sinbad-ai, @mari-m-rose or @naoscifra and say that Ja’far is lacking in complexity or character development. Those are the most reasonable, emotionally mature SinJa shippers I can think of and I suspect they would take umbrage with the notion that a canonical romance with Sinbad would “ruin his character,” and they absolutely SHOULD.

I can already hear Morgiana critics claiming that a comparison between her and Ja’far is doesn’t work because she didn’t switch gears from being a martial artist to being some sort of administrative staffer like Ja’far. Again, she’s running up against a double standard. Much like Masrur, she already had a knack for martial arts. Jamil forced her use her skills to harm others against her will. Now she decides how she gets to use her power and what skill subsets she wants to hone and utilize. It’s no different from Masrur giving up swordsmanship and refusing to fight to the death in Zepar’s dungeon.

Ironically, I think the greatest testament to how much her character developed came from the heartbreaking scene in Magi 331 where she explains to Alibaba why she’d be satisfied with dying as she is. She seems to be saying that she’s been through so many changes and experiences that she truly believes she’s already lived a rich and fulfilling life. I don’t think the things she expresses in the panel below are ideas entirely planted in her head by Neo-Sinbad. I think his brainwashing has put her in the same mental state she’d be in if she was about to lose a physical fight to the death or die from a terminal illness.

I’ll end this dissertation response with the aforementioned panel, and let Morgiana’s words as translated by @itsdannystormborn to speak for themselves.

A new girlgroup was about to debut, ‘Impression’ was about to make it’s first appearance with a cute concept, much to the girls disliking.

“I’m sorry Y/N, we can’t change it. No matter how much the girls protest. You’re supposed to keep them in check, not approve their disliking of the concept. It was chosen because I know you’ll be able to make this great.” Their manager said. Even before their teasers they had been protesting against the concept but because it fit their overall image they went with it. But now that the MV they were recording had turned into a high school girl pink explosion, the girls didn’t seem to approve at all.

1/2 Do you think ONCE would've been better if they'd just made Zelena the Big Bad S4-6 - Zelena/the Hat, Zelena/the QoD/Author, Zelena/DO entity(?) Zelena/the Evil Queen/Hyde, - (why kill her just to bring her back?), Bae/Neal would still be alive & if they hadn't made it Once Upon A Hook/Everybody Hates Rumple? Rumple, Regina & (*eye roll*) Hook could continue their redemption arc side-by-side with family support & Zelena & main arc villain take centre stage. Everything went downhill post 3x11.

I think that the character/storytelling integrity on OUAT would have left a much better impression on our minds, if it had just ended with “Going Home” (3x11). It’s pretty obvious to me that they had run out of consistent, dynamic, organic, realistic, and well-developed storyline for all of the original main staple characters on the show from season one of OUAT, including Emma, Regina, Rumple, Snow, David (“Charming”), and Henry, which is why most of their character arcs from 3B-6A of the show either felt totally inorganic, shocking, and purely plot-driven, and/or went back-and-forth between character development and regression every half season. It might have been most obvious with Rumple because he was their scapegoat antagonist from 3B-6A, whether it actually made sense for everyone else to be pissed off at him in the narrative, or not, but really, it’s every main character on this show, including Hook, who they obviously brought 3B-S7 back for to do CS, that has been reduced to a mere plot device for Adam and Eddy’s stupid magical deus ex machinna soap opera plots.

I’m going to use Rumple and Belle as prime examples because they are the most obvious ones, who have suffered from this sort of circular character development-regression on the show from 3B-6A, (or even in S2), and/or been written spitefully and inorganically for the sake of increasingly nonsensical, OOC, and magical deus ex machinna soap opera plot-driven storylines that have made less and less sense. It’s sad because Rumple and Belle are/were actually always the most beautiful, organically emotionally complex, relatable, and dynamic characters/couple on the show, thanks to Robert Carlyle and Emilie De Ravin’s fantastic acting/chemistry together on screen that could even make the worst possible assassination of their characters in 6A almost feel worth forgiving the writers for doing to deliberately taint both their individual characters and their relationship together, no matter how little fucking sense it made at the end of it all.

However, every main character’s development/regression on this show has been written pretty circularly back-and-forth, illogically, and/or inorganically from 3B-6A (S7), not just Rumple and Belle’s, because Kitsowitz ran out of original storyline for all of them after 3x11, and have just been trying to recycle the same old storyline over and over again from S1-S3A with new, and increasingly nonsensical, and character assassinating magical plot twists and stupid retcons, like the whole thing of the EQ suddenly having the hots for Rumple in 6A.

Luckily, there’s no evidence that Rumple and the EQ ever made it past second base, and I’m pretty sure the only reasons why he was with her at all in the first place in 6A were because she sexually assaulted him twice first, reminding him of Zelena, wouldn’t leave him alone after giving him the shears, he felt trapped, and so he led her on to try and survive his trauma and kill two birds with one stone by gaining control in a situation where he felt helpless, and getting rid of his worst living enemy, not love, sex, or desire on his part, which makes it even more gross that Kitsowitz tried to shrug off the Golden Queen shit as a “rebound” or a “romance” for Rumple. If it were just that, then I’d have been cool with Rumple seeing someone else when Belle wanted nothing to do with him, but what the EQ was doing to him in 6A was sick sexual assault and the demonization of his PTSD. It reminded me of him kissing Zelena and giving into her romantic advances “consensually” because he felt trapped by her, and it seriously offended me and pissed me off when A&E and the writers tried to make the EQ look like Rumple’s “victim” by having him emotionally manipulate her by implying that he might sleep with her, if she killed Zelena for him first out of nowhere in a deal (luckily, he didn’t go through with it, and from how uncomfortable and disinterested he was in the EQ the whole time he had to deal with her kisses and touches, even that one time he “consensually” made out with her in his shop, expecting Zelena to come in at any moment, so that he could get the EQ to kill her for him, I don’t believe he ever actually intended to sleep with the EQ either way, especially because he told Belle it “meant nothing,” and he was still wearing his ring the whole time.

But again, that’s just a headcanon of mine that I have because Robert Carlyle has made it pretty obvious that Rumple has PTSD from the sexual abuse/assault that Rumple has suffered from Zelena and Milah, and I’d like to think that Rumple would be smart enough to not go through with an implied deal to have sex with someone else, even if they did do his dirty work for him, like he asked, because he’s not that stupid, and he genuinely did not look like someone, who was getting a boner when the EQ was kissing him without his consent, or even when he “consensually” made out with the Evil Queen in his shop that one time in 6a with the seeming expectation of being caught mid-makeout session with the EQ by Zelena (he ran into her a few minutes before all this happened in a cut scene at Granny’s, so I think he was expecting to get caught with the EQ by her when he was doing that with her in his shop, especially because he told Belle it “meant nothing,” and because the expression on his face looked so bored, disgusted, and dead on the inside when he was making out with the EQ, kind of like he was waiting to get interrupted by someone in the act, like “How much longer do I have to keep up with this shit with the Evil Queen until Zelena comes walking through that door, so I can stop doing this? This shit’s making me feel queasy inside”).

But it was still never clearly addressed what the hell Rumple was thinking in hanging around the EQ in 6A because he was the “villain” of 6A, so his POV wasn’t explored, and no one else gave a shit about hearing him out on what he was actually doing, or treating him like human, including his true love (up until the last minute of 6A when it all almost blew up in their faces). However, I’m trying to make sense of it in the most in-character and realistic possible way for Rumple in the show that spares his reputation.

Anyway, as I was saying, everyone’s character development was getting axed on this show, and going in circles from 3B-6A, not just Rumple and Belle’s.

How many times was Emma’s arc about other characters breaking through her walls (to the point of having an unhealthy complete 180 in character development that made her Hook’s abuser, lap dog, and victim, who completely ignored her family and personal values from S5 onwards, and became a mere love interest on her own show) from 3B onward?

How many times was Regina’s arc about trying to find a way to fill that empty hole in her heart for her desire to be accepted, and to get past the bad choices she made from 3B-6A, even though she was already getting that wholehearted love and acceptance that she always wanted post S1 from Emma, the Charmings, and Henry, and all the writers had to do was make it so that she was able to take full responsibility for her shitty choices in the past, rather than trying to blame Rumple for her problems, or trying to find a magical deus ex-machinna to find happiness and self-acceptance that she should have just been able to achieve organically, like the author in S4, or the whole stupid split!Regina/EQ shit in S5?

How many times was it revealed somewhere in the storyline from S4-6A that Snow and David were keeping a dark or tragic secret from Emma, like kidnapping someone else’s child to magically remove their daughter’s inherent potential for great darkness into another’s innocent child without either one of theirs consent (which was not just looping development, but also character assassination for soap opera OOC plot drama) or that Snow couldn’t keep a secret at all and sold out Belle to Hyde to save her and Charming’s own skins (also an innocent negative character that turned into a flaw), and that Snow was always struggling with her conscience because a part of her was always willing to darken her heart to protect her children and keep them “heroic” deep down, no matter the cost?

How many times has Henry’s arc been about trying to pull everyone together to make everyone else believe in magic, fairytales, and true love, and/or to try to destroy the source of it altogether in a very character assassinating way in S5 for what he believes to be everyone’s problems stemming from magic from 3B-S7?

How many times has Hook’s arc been about going on a quest for revenge against someone else, who wronged him, trying to be in Emma’s favor with the writers brushing his shady past under the rug, hiding his true colors from her as much as possible, putting on the mask of a “good” man for her, trying to change her entire personality by intentionally invading and disrespecting her personal space, personal opinions, and feelings, in his desire to “break her walls,” and dominate her entire life, regardless of whether she wanted him to be a part of it or not from S3-6A?

It’s true that Adam and Eddy could have given Rumple and Regina more consistent and drawn out slow-burn redemption arcs by developing their relationships with Baelfire, Belle, Henry, Emma, and the Charmings in a healthy and realistic way that that took course over seven seasons, and if they wanted to make Hook a redeemable and relatable character so fucking badly, then they shouldn’t have set him up in romance with Emma out of nowhere that was based on the misogynistic desire to “win her heart,”whether she liked it or not, focused more on fleshing out his backstory, given him a reason to be good because he actually wanted to be better, not just to impress Emma by being “fake”, and/or or thrown Hook and every other main character under the bus in a lazy, not to mention, total failed attempt to try and make him look better by comparison. But they’ve never been talented enough creative writers with much desire to treat their characters as individual people in the long run post S1.

Kitsowitz aren’t any good at planning ahead, they think on the spur of the moment, and so they got too distracted by moving on to the next big magical shiny twist, and sacrificed their characters for them too many times over because they are plot-driven big picture screenwriters, not skilled creative writers of character. Damon Lindlelof from Lost was, but he stopped mentoring them for OUAT’s writing after 3A, which is why the show went straight downhill once he left in 3B. Even back in S2, it was starting to show that Kitsowitz didn’t care all that much about character development, or integrity when the characterization was still consistent enough that the bad writing was almost ignorable, but it was still there.

For instance, that whole amnesiac Belle/Lacey plot that happened when Belle fell over the town line when Hook shot her to get back at Rumple, lost her memories, and then got magically transformed into Lacey by Regina to spite Rumple. That plot in S2 didn’t do anything for Rumple or Belle’s character development on the show. It was just a magical plot device to create angst for angst’s sake to separate them just because. It seemed pretty obvious to me in the canon narrative that Rumple just wanted Belle back the whole time in S2 when she had amnesia/became Lacey because he did try to wake Belle with TLK when she was asleep in the hospital to restore her memories when she had amnesia, he did try to be the good man beneath the curse that Belle fell in love with when he first encountered Lacey at a bar to try and bring back Belle from beneath the magical cursed alter ego, and I think he felt that appealing to Lacey’s dark side by beating up Keith Nottingham with his cane and being “as dark as they say you are” could be a way to make Lacey fall in love with him, so that he could potentially make her Belle again with TLK.

But, in the end, Rumple was not even the one who got to go on a major quest to restore Belle’s memories by reviving her with TLK in S2. Instead, it was the Blue Fairy who found a magical deus ex machinna potion to restore Belle’s memories at the end of S2 out of nowhere because plot was more important to Kitsowitz than organic character development, and Rumple losing the Dark One’s curse would have been an inconvenience to their plot because they were lazy. Likewise, Belle never showed any signs of having suffered any feelings of discomfort, guilt, regret, or trauma from her memories of her time as Lacey afterwards, and while I don’t think there’s any canonical evidence that she and Rumple slept together when she was Lacey (not only would he never do that to his true love without her consent, but there were also no little implied scenes that they did anything more than make out when Belle was Lacey, like the fade to black Hollywood kiss, like in 5A, the little morning after bedroom scenes, the little scenes of either of them being seen buttoning up their clothes, like in 5A, or either of them being seen in skimpy nightgowns, like Belle had when she woke up in Rumple’s bed in 2A), Adam and Eddy were still too fucking lazy to address any of the dubious consent issues between Belle and any of the other characters on the show, who she interacted with when she was Lacey, or what she did that she regretted when she was Lacey.

Adam and Eddy were still too fucking lazy to fully develop and address what Rumple’s actual plans were with Lacey to bring Belle back once he realized that he couldn’t get through to her. It didn’t really seem much like him to just resign himself to the potential future of Belle being gone forever and totally embracing Lacey. I don’t think that’s what he was doing in S2 either. It’s my headcanon that he was planning to make Lacey fall in love with him by appealing to her dark side, so that he could protect Belle from getting hurt, getting into trouble, and/or making any bad decisions as Lacey because he knew she would come to regret once she was herself again, and that he was planning to bring Belle back with TLK. But again, that’s a headcanon, not canonically confirmed because there really was no clear explanation of what Rumple’s actual motives or plans were with Lacey once he realized he couldn’t just get through to her by trying to appeal to Belle under the curse, and they took away the opportunity for him to be the one to bring her back with TLK by the end of S2 when they had Leroy give him that stupid magical deus ex machinna potion from the Blue Fairy to break the whole Lacey trance that Belle was under. So the whole Lacey arc kind of made Rumple look rather uncharacteristically vague and shady for no real reason, other than the fact that it was inconvenient in the plot for him to not be the Dark One.

The Rumbelle/Belle’s amnesia/Lacey plot in the series back in S2 is probably the earliest instance of a stupid magical deus ex machinna soap opera plot that was about creating angst for angst’s sake, rather than actual character development for Rumple or Belle, and it only continued to get worse from that point forward. However, at least the main characters still mostly made consistently dynamic, well-developed, realistic, and emotionally complex sense in the narrative all the way up to 3x11, so that it felt like it ended in a satisfying way with means that justified the end result. After that, the show’s writing went haywire because Kitsowitz ran out of original storyline, killed off Nealfire, turned the whole narrative against Rumple, whether it actually made sense for the other characters to be pissed off at him, or not, including his true love, especially because everyone else, including Belle and Henry, were all doing things that were just as bad, if not worse, because they crossed the boundaries of autonomy and consent in other characters as ends to justify the means, too, anyway, so the entire moral boundary that separated the “heroes” from the “villains” was more or less destroyed from 3B-6A. They were all just deeply fucked up and problematic people by the end of 6A, anyway. True, some characters have objectively committed worse crimes with worse motives than others (like I can’t stand Hook or CS because Emma and Hook’s intentions were purely selfish, malicious, and possessive; in 6A, Rumple and Belle still never meant to harm each other, or make each other feel trapped, or frightened, no matter how uncharacteristically impulsive, illogical, unhealthy, toxic, and stupid their plans to keep their baby and each other safe in a blind desperation and panic based off what a fucking dream version of their unborn son told them about Rumple potentially destroying Belle and their unborn child were).

Kitsowitz wish they could be smarter than their audience, considering all of the dropped plot points for realistic and complex character development (Belle getting locked up in a tower with no memories for over 28 years, Rumple being resurrected, losing his son, and then getting caged, controlled, and molested by Zelena for a whole year), and their inorganic stupid magical plot twists. But they’re not. We’re smarter than Kitsowitz want us to be, and that started showing in S2 when they began traveling realms for magical sparkly dirt, and the whole Belle/amnesia/Lacey plot.

Also, much as I like Bex Mader as an actress, I’d prefer it if Zelena never fucking existed on OUAT at all because the character she plays is so unforgivably atrocious, and she’s basically just another version of S1 evil Regina/the Evil Queen on steroids, since she’s even more antisocial, cruel, psychotic, and irredeemable than her.

I’d prefer it if this show had just ended with 3x11 because that’s the last time that Kitsowitz’s mantra of “bold storytelling” for this show didn’t make me want to punch them both in the face so hard, and pull out my hair in frustration with them for destroying my favorite characters in the writing, like Rumple and Belle, for their increasingly illogical and OOC magical deus ex machinna plot twists from 3B-6A. Even before that they were starting to fridge and/or ruin the characters for stupid and unnecessary magical soap opera plot twists for “bold storytelling” that didn’t even do the main characters involved in them any major role in solving their own problems, and/or any sort of major character development, anyway, like Rumple and Belle in the whole amnesiac Belle/Lacey plot in S2 because Rumple never got to restore Belle’s memories or break the whole Lacey curse she was under with TLK to bring Belle back, and that Belle never got to be shown having any sort of negative feelings/trauma about afterwards that got explored from her time as Lacey, or from being locked up in a tower by Regina with no memories for over 28 years.

However, 3B was the moment when they started retconning all of what we thought were once the relatively straightforward and pre-established rules for magic, killed off Nealfire (who was like Rumple’s glue to the main storyline, and primary motivation from S1-3A), and brought Rumple back from the dead, just to have him get abused, caged, controlled, and traumatized by a psychopathic witch for a whole year, primarily so that they could ignore that all of those horrible things ever happened to him in the narrative in the first place, and then turn him into their scapegoat villain, even though it often didn’t make any sense to do so because every other main character on the show was getting away with making just as many shitty ends justify the means type choices that were often just as bad, if not worse, anyway, so the meaningful moral boundary that separated the heroes from the villains had more or less been getting dissolved by S4 with a bunch of petty “Everybody Hates Rumple” bandwagon mentality hypocrisy.

Okay Riley gets EVEN MORE stressed and screwy about this than Maya’s because he knows about the book

He’snot supposed to know

No one was ever supposed to know about the book

She was so caught up in Maya’s party she made a fatal error and showed him

It’s supposed to be a damn surprise party

But he knows she’s throwing him a party

She done fucked up

Not to mention after he gave her an amazing Sweet 16th birthday- and then an amazing Sweet 16th party for their one month anniversary- like now she knows she has to step up her fucking game here

She’s like 80% sure he didn’t look through his section in the book but she still worries he did

She enlists Maya’s help obviously but Maya is…significantly less useful than Farkle was at calming her down in this situation

But Riley literally needs any help she can get so she’s not complaining much

Okay so they start the planning a little after the Valentine’s Day Fiasco so everyone knows they’re dating by now

Which makes it harder on Riley because now that they’re public Farkle is all over her 9000% of the time which she has absolutely no problem with but she can’t plan his surprise party in front of him!!!!

But she also can’t exactly say “I can’t go out with you tonight I need to plan your party” and she knows he knows all her tells when she’s lying

u g h

Not to mention, her and Maya’s party turned out so well mostly because Farkle’s rich

She obviously can’t make him pay for his own party and her and Maya’s budget is currently consisting of 50 bucks and some spare peanuts omfg

But she’s trying to keep it together. She’s been planning this thing for 4 years, for crying out loud.

She spends the whole month she has to plan it screaming internally

Farkle’s so fucking unhelpful too like he’s definitely aware she’s planning a party for him but he’s severely underestimating how stressed and worried she is about this omfg

So he keeps joking around like constantly reminding her his birthday is the 21st and every time he sees her writing something he asks her if it’s party plans and stuff and she’s SO UPSET AND HE’S JUST NOT SEEING IT FARKLE COME ON

He literally doesn’t figure it out until he made some comment like “Oh my parents wanna do something on the day after my birthday, so the party can’t be that Saturday” and she BURSTS INTO TEARS

HE’S IMMEDIATELY LIKE ‘FUCK WHAT DID I DO I’M SORRY’

And she finally explains that she’s honestly so fucking upset he knows about this because she just really wanted him to be surprised, like to just genuinely catch him off guard for once and show him how much she and everyone loves him, and her feeling of being surprised at the party really reinforced that, and she’s so mad at herself for showing him the book in the first place but she was sleep deprived and after everyone had forgotten her birthday she didn’t feel like she could trust anyone else to put in enough effort with Maya’s party but now the surprise factor is ruined and he won’t even give her a little space so she can order the damn flower arrangements and SHE’S ALL WORKED UP

And he’s really not sure why she’s so invested in the element of surprise here but he’s trying so hard to calm her down omfg like he knows she loves him he’s not gonna doubt that because he’s aware she’s throwing a party??? If anything seeing the book reinforced for him that she loved him omfg

And she’s still upset because he’s not totally getting it but he promises to give her some space to do whatever she needs and that calms her down a little

So now her and Maya are diving into the planning and Riley’s not as rushed as she was with Maya’s so she’s thanking Jesus on the daily

They’re trying to come up with a location that at the very least he won’t be expecting

Maya’s suggesting really random places like abandoned warehouses and other buildings so they can make it like an underground rave and Riley’s…honestly not hating the idea but she’s not sure how they’d pull it off

The baker was hardcore judging them because their instructions for the cake was “as chocolate as humanly possible to make it. With chocolate frosting. And the writing and details in orange frosting. And maybe throw on some sour gummy worms for decoration.”

Because Farkle is a sugar fiend everyone is honestly impressed he’s not diabetic yet

Maya wanted the cake to read “Happy Birthday Asshole” and Riley wanted something about how amazing he was but it was simply too many words to fit. They settled on “Happy Birthday Sparkly Farkly” which they started calling him after an arts and crafts accident in fifth grade. They know he secretly loves it but he always acts mad when they call him that in public. So it felt like the best way to convey affection to him on his birthday lmao

Maya and Zay put in a mass order for shirts/hats/jackets/banners/etc that read ‘Farkle Nation’ omfg

Lucas knew that since it was a party for Farkle there’d be way too much sugar and took it upon himself to order way too many Edible Arrangements bouquets omfg Maya made fun of him for 3 weeks about it

Omfg they decided they had to take a page from Farkle’s book with the giant blown up pictures but they were like. Do we wanna be sweet or do we wanna embarrass him.

The answer was both

So they got two pictures blown up lol- one super cute one of them attack kissing him at the same time after 8th grade graduation. It’s honestly the cutest picture they’ve ever taken.

They were struggling on the embarrassing one tho and they were lamenting about it and Cory was just like wait and ran out of the room and came back 10 minutes later holding The Picture

From 5th grade

When he was still all glasses and bowl cuts and turtlenecks

And their art project went so very wrong and he ended up covered head to toe, front to back in glitter omfg

Cory had the perfect picture of him looking like a human disco ball and pouting into the camera.

The girls knew that as Farkle’s best friends it was truly their duty to blow this picture up and hang it on a wall for all the party goers to see

Riley decided since they were going more rave theme they didn’t really need flowers but she still got orange roses and daisies anyway because she’s a sentimental piece of garbage

She figures they can set some bouquets next to Lucas’s lame ass healthy fruit flowers and she needs to see the what the place looks like to figure out if she can do anything else

Which brings us to the next problem: They literally still do not have a location omfg

Which is kinda a problem

So they’re freaking out when in swoops Stuart Minkus right

And Riley doesn’t wanna tell him jack shit because there’s a high probability he’s just gonna run home and tell Farkle everything

And Minkus is like ‘Riley please I didn’t tell him I gave you girls keys when he spent months trying to figure out how you were getting in the house. I didn’t tell him when Maya dyed his hair blue in his sleep and it took him 4 hours to notice. I didn’t tell him when for a science project you had set up hidden devices all over his room that you could press a button and ‘beep’ at any given time to make him think he was going insane. I didn’t tell him when Maya installed a porn virus on his school laptop. Why on Earth would I let you girls down now?”

Lmao so they tell him every thing and they mention they’re still looking for a location right

And he’s like…Girls you are aware I basically own half the city right?

And they’re like SHIT because that honestly slipped their minds omfg

So he listens to what they wanna do and he thinks it’s a weird idea but he does own a couple of abandoned buildings from projects and whatnot that just went south and he was never really able to sell

So he draws up a list of ones he can prove are entirely safe and gives it to the girls and basically tells them to have fun lmao

Okay so they spend two days looking around at these sites right

And most of them are just big open spaces which would be helpful but they still wanna keep looking

And then they stumble upon this really weird place omfg

Okay so according to Minkus’ note, it was a warehouse but then they tried to turn a extra floor into apartments but everyone fled the place because they were claiming it’s haunted

The girls read that and called Lucas, Zay and Smackle to come with them to see it because they read that note and they were just like “…Obviously.”

So they get there and the bottom floor where like factory work was happening has been cleared of any machinery except there’s a weird tiny stage there. They’re figuring the short-lived apartment building tried to have activities down here or something.

Okay and then above that on a landing is this big office-y sort of room with one glass wall so you can look out of it and see the floor (although there are blinds and other walls)

And then around that is just this extra floor that literally has really tiny fully furnished studio apartments like it deadass looks like everyone living there got up and left in the middle of the night it’s so creepy

So Riley’s starting to get excited omg she’s like “Okay so we have the actual rave-ish party on the bottom floor, and then we could-”

“get a projector and screen a bunch of his favorite nerd movies in the office space!” was Maya’s great contribution

And then omfg Lucas was like “Oooh and if anyone gets too tired from the party they can lay down to rest in the apartments!”

And everyone’s staring at him for a moment and Maya’s just like “You’re right that’s exactly what people would want to use them for good boy.” lmao

Okay so now they gotta get the word out to the school obvi

Riley and Zay handle inviting people and they manage to tell evvverybody it’s in a haunted building omg so a lot of people are going lol

Maya and Smackle leave one day and come back with a shit load of glow-in-the dark paint and black lights

Riley enlists Lucas who enlists his jock friends to go through the factory and clean everything lmao

Since they had to go after practice and stuff it takes them like a week to get it all done

For a present, Riley manages to get him tickets to an underground robot fight, an actual record album of Pippin signed by the original cast, and bought a star in his name; When she told Maya, the blonde’s only response was ‘he’s gonna nut’ 😂

Okay so we’re now…Maybe a week and a half from March 21st, Farkle’s birthday

And Riley’s still upset that she can’t actually surprise him

And Maya’s just like “Why don’t you just avoid him completely until the party and make him think he pissed you off so he’s relieved to be surprised.”

And Riley’s like “No Maya you don’t understand he let’s me make out with him”

So avoiding him altogether is out of the picture in her mind😂

So they’re spit balling plans to surprise him back and forth for like an hour and they’re getting more and more pathetic lol

But then ZAY SAVES THE DAY

Okay so they had already planned on using any element of surprise they can get in the first place- because of that, even though Farkle was pretty much expecting this party to be on the Friday after his birthday, they had scheduled it for his actual birthday, which was Wednesday. Cory Matthews was already preparing to play dumb on their behalf when most of the sophomore class and whole knows how many other kids skip school on Thursday lmao

So anyway Zay was like “Riley why don’t you just convince him you had plans set for Friday but they fell through and now there is no party”

And Riley’s like but he knows my tells!

And Maya’s like “…but if you start crying he’d turn into a panicked mess and wouldn’t know up from down.”

So everyone is like holy shit this could work

And that’s the story of how on a Sunday night Farkle was very confused when Riley ran into his room sobbing that she’s the ‘worst girlfriend in the history of romantic attraction. Fuck, even Neanderthals would’ve made better girlfriends than me!’

And she’s straight up sobbing into his chest and this poor boy is like “WHAT THE FUCK” he doesn’t know what to do and Riley’s now crying to hard for him to make out a concrete sentence

And she really lays it on okay homegirl manages to drudge up fake tears for like 40 minutes you should be proud

So he finally gets her to calm down a bit and he wants to know what’s wrong and she’s still got her face shoved in his chest so he can’t read her tells and she’s like “We had this whole thing planned we were trying to rent a huge room in Hard Rock Café on Friday for your birthday and all our friends and family would be there and it wasn’t even anything amazing like you did for me and Maya but my budget was significantly smaller but I was hoping you wouldn’t mind BUT IT ALL FELL THROUGH AND NOW WE CAN’T HAVE A PARTY FOR YOU! The restaurant made a mix up and accidentally canceled our reservations and we can’t get anywhere else on such short notice and I can’t even get a refund for the canceled reservations so it’s not like I’d be able to take you anywhere other than an Applebees anyway so now I don’t know what to do and you’re leaving for the Hamptons Saturday morning so it’s not like I can throw anything else together and I’ve let you down you deserve a girlfriend so much better than me honestly you should just call Isadora to see what she’s doing! I’m so sorry Farkle!”

Like Riley is really selling this holy shit Farkle is beside himself on her behalf and he’s trying to calm her down and tell her that she’s amazing and he loves her and trying to convince her that he really doesn’t need a birthday party at all omfg

She’s still crying when she leaves his house but he managed calm her down a little omg

Okay so now it’s Wednesday, Farkle’s birthday right

School is normal, Riley baked him brownies for the occasion but still looked like she’d burst into tears at any moment

So it’s now like…8′o’clock at night, right

And suddenly he gets a text from Maya that’s like “omg I’m part of one of those groups where you get really abstract text clues about where a movie marathon is happening and there’s one starting soon in a haunted building and they’re doing all your War of the Stars movies or whatever I need you to drive me”

And Farkle’s like “Okay but Maya you clearly don’t care so why are you even going in the first place??”

And she’s like “I can make myself suffer through sci-fi for your birthday. Riley’s coming too, leave now or I’ll hurt you.”

So he picks them up and he’s like “aren’t you guys dressed a little nice for a movie marathon??” because Riley’s got her hair all curly and she’s in this tight black and white dress with that’s very distracting and Maya’s at least in a romper but it’s like. A fancy one that’s all silver and black

But Maya makes some comment like “I don’t need a dress code for life” and Riley’s staring out the window still in full blown sulk mode about the party falling through

So okay he follows Maya’s directions and pulls up to this fucking abandoned warehouse and all the lights are off inside and it sounds dead quiet and he’s like “Yeah no we’re gonna get murdered aren’t we?” and Maya’s like ‘probably’ and heads inside, texting the whole time

So he sighs and him and Riley start walking over and he’s trying to get her to tell him what’s wrong and they’re right at the door she’s got her hand on the handle and she just sighs sadly and says “I really don’t deserve you, Farkle.”

And before he can #panic and try to cheer her up she smiles and says “But you probably deserve me,” and opens the door and shoves him inside

The lights flash on and everyone’s screaming ‘surprise!’ and he’s just so.

WHAT

HE’S SO SHOCKED OMG

The two giant blown up pictures are hanging on opposite sides of the room. Tables filled with a lot of junk food (and for some reason fruit bouquets????) and drinks pushed up against the walls so there’s still a huge amount of room for people to dance. A tiered chocolate cake (with gummy worms??) that looks taller than him is up on a stage next to where it looks like Zay had set up DJ equipment. The blinds are open in the designated screening room so he can see the projector set up. As far as he can see, almost everyone in the room is wearing some article of white clothing-hats, shirts, sweatbands- and they look normal but Zay’s got extra boxes of them on stage that he clearly intends to throw to the crowd. There’s also plain white banners hanging around the room, he’s a little confused about that. And he’s also seeing Riley’s got orange roses and daisies scattered across the room. This boy is just. so shocked and confused right now omfg.

He thinks he’s recognizing more than half of the student body in this room honestly what the fuck how is this happening

Everyone’s still cheering and taking pictures and Maya’s shoving him into this hot pink sash that reads ‘BIRTHDAY BITCH’ in glitter and he’s just staring in shock still omg

Riley’s smirking at him and nudging him like “Did I surprise you???” and all he can do is nod and she’s squealing and hugging him in excitement

So Zay finally gets the microphone at his stand working and he’s like ‘alright LETS GO’ and all the sudden the lights cut out and black lights are lighting up and all the plain white stuff he’d noticed before were now proclaiming “FARKLE NATION” in glow in the dark paint he’s freaking out omg

He can barely figure out what songs are being played because Riley’s got his hand and is dragging him to the dance floor and he’s getting completely swept up in this party omfg

Riley’s living for the fact the look of surprise never leaves his eyes all night

They dance for hours with occasional breaks for food and drinks but everyone’s really having a great time

They can hear people screaming at whatever movie they’re playing on the projector

They decide to attempt to cut and pass out slices of the cake around 10:30. They shoved Farkle on the stage and Zay made him stand there as he got most of the party goers to sing happy birthday and then Riley was like “here eat your slice right now while Lucas and I try to pass out pieces” so Farkle was left to awkwardly stand on stage in front of hundreds of people and try to eat a diabetes-ridden slice of cake and of course Maya shoved it in his face after a few bites 😂

Omg so the party gets back in full swing right and at some point around Midnight Riley and Farkle end up in the last row of seats they had set up in the projection room and they’re watching Paranormal Activity or something

Well they’re supposed to be watching it lol in reality they’re all cuddled up and whispering because Farkle wants to know how the hell she pulled this off

And she’s looking out a crack in the blinds, watching Zay try to get everyone invested in a line dance and launching more shirts out of a shirt cannon and the screen is casting a blue light over her and he’s obsessed with how it looks

And she’s like “I was really set on surprising you because you always surprise me and I figured I should return the favor one of these days”

And he’s like “I thought you wanted to through me a party because I was such a loser when we were kids?” and she shoves his shoulder and they’re both smiling (although she doesn’t deny he was a loser lmao)

And now she’s listing off all the times he’s surprised her, like she didn’t think the sad-looking kid on the playground would be her best friend and talk about space with her, she didn’t think Dracula would save her from drowning, she didn’t think he’d show up at the hospital after she’d gotten her tonsils out and read to her the whole stay, she didn’t think he’d ever get rid of that awful bowl cut (lol), she didn’t think his playground feelings for her would turn out to be real and deep, she didn’t think he’s make her fall in love with him, her list keeps going on

And she’s finally like “so I really wanted to surprise you for once, okay? I wasn’t joking with the ‘I don’t deserve you’ thing. But I’ve always been a little selfish and I love you too much and I just wanted you to know that.”

And so of course now Farkle’s on some sappy tangent about how amazing Riley is ya-da-ya-da-ya-da

Annnd now they’re making out

And now they’re still making out but sneaking out the door in the room

Why are they heading to the apartment sections

Children no,

Why are they tying that stupid sash Maya gave him around a door knob to one place

Children get away from the bed,

(No but yeah I think you can figure out where that moment goes)

And let’s just say that was their first, ah, ~moment~

And it was rather spur-of-the-moment, sure, but I don’t think either of them are gonna complain too much okay

They sneak back down to the dance party a little after that

Zay starts some crazy contests up he’s really digging the DJ thing

The rest of the party is amazing and everyone has a great time

Riley and Farkle don’t leave each other’s sight the whole night and I think Maya is a little suspicious about why Riley’s lipstick is messed up and Farkle’s blushing so much, but she convinces herself it’s all the dancing and doesn’t bring it up lol

Lucas is off in the corner fussing because literally no one has touched his Edible Arrangements and it’s like 2:30 in the morning wtf guys

People start clearing out around 3:30-ish

It’s still talked about as one of the best parties ever even as they’re graduating

The girls crashed at Farkle’s place for the night rather than drive all the way back home (the warehouse was closer to him)

So he’s lying in bed and instead of staring at the planetarium ceiling he’s staring at Riley who’s softly snoring next to him

And he’s still seeing flashing lights in his eyes and hearing songs he can barely recognize and his heart hasn’t returned to normal beats yet and he’s not sure if that’s from the dancing or the milestone he and Riley crossed but it’s a good feeling

He wasn’t expecting anything at all but he definitely had a Sweet Sixteen and wouldn’t change a second of it

I really want you people to know that I had ‘Darude- Sandstorm’ stuck in my head for the entire 2 and a half hours it took to right this

A resident director recently met with students of a club that I belong to. It was fantastic! I love being able to learn things from people who really know what’s what, especially in a field like medicine, which is oftensaturated by a lot of information from too many (not always reliable)sources. Getting straight answers from someone truly in the know is simply
invaluable.

So I’ll share something
I heard straight from one horse’s mouth. Maybe you’ve heard or experienced
different things - that’s great; please share! We can all benefit from each other!
I wrote this to share, but also in for myself. It’s a great way to record the thing that could help as i move further in my medical career. I’m just a wee M1, so my experience and knowledge on residencies is somewhat
limited, but I do hope it helps!

Also, I won’t
waste time talking about board scores and academics. You know what you have to
do there.

1. Your Picture

I’ll start with
the one people tend to not think about. In your application, you must provide a
picture of yourself so admissions committee can get a good look at your mug.
The resident director said that out of maybe 500 applications he will immediately
throw out 20-30 applicants based on their pictures alone. Now don’t cry
discrimination just yet. He went on to explain that these pictures were so
ridiculous, so far-fetched or just plain crazy that he could not rationalize
looking through these candidates’ apps. He said he has seen everything from a
guy with wild, untamed lion-mane locks to a girl spilling so far out of her
shirt it was almost taboo to look at to a Facebook party picture. It’s easy to
get your picture taken in which you are wearing nice attire that appeases the
older generation. Be smart. Do it.

2. An Attention Grabbing Statement

Personal
statement that is. From what I understand, most personal statements are not
read until the interviewee has been offered an interview. Unless the first sentence grabs your face
and makes you read it, makes you want to know what happens next or why this
person wrote that sentence. Not everyone
is an accomplished writer and, honestly, that’s fine. Even statements written
with perfect Victorian prose will be skimmed and shrugged off. So what do you
do? Just go for it. Use your experiences, the things that open the window to
who you are. Also, the director said writing about how much you love medicine
and all of your volunteer work for, say, habitat for humanity does not cut it
anymore. In his words, “It’s expected that everyone does it! I don’t care!” A
little harsh in my opinion, but the sentiment is there.

Everybody knows that if you surf the web long enough, you’ll see some pretty sick shit. This is especially true if you intentionally dwell into the dark underbelly of the internet. I’ve seen quite a few things I don’t care to admit to, but one thing that I’ll always remember is a site called “normalpornfornormalpeople.com”.

The first strange thing about the site was that I didn’t find it by actually looking for it. It was e-mailed to me by someone I didn’t know. The e-mail was as follows:

Hi therefound this site is very nice thought u might likenormalpornfornormalpeople.compass it on, for the good of mankind

An Exclusive Interview with Kimberly Kreines, Ari Levitch, and Mel Li of the Magic Creative Team!

For my final interview, I sit down with creative designers and worldbuilders Kimberly Kreines, Ari Levitch, and Mel Li ( @etheriumsculptor ) to talk about the world of Kaladesh, its inhabitants, and creating people and stories to that make the Multiverse as spectacular as it is. Beneath the cut, we touch on everything from gremlins to story stakes, fan reactions, and panharmonicons!

So i’m procrastinating from going to the gym so here’s my thoughts on the top six from RPDR Season 8, this is going to be a long one so congrats if you read to the end…

Bob The Drag Queen: Tbh I never really enjoyed Bob from the beginning, I can never stand a comedian that calls themselves “hilarious” constantly, especially one as average as Bob. She had her moments that made me giggle but all in all there’s been way funnier queens that have more under their belt than being “funny”. I Thought her RuCo’s Empire was completely self centred and milked every line to the point where I didn’t find it funny (every comedian knows that there is such a thing as taking a joke too far) and her runway look was cheap and it showed. The same went for her snatch game, in my opinion her switching characters was her: a) Wanting to show off that she could do more than one impression, which I’m sure many other queens could do, and b) Not having enough material to do one character the whole way through. Also she didnt do Uzo Aduba, she did crazy eyes which is a fictional character WHICH ISNT ALLOWED ASK MAX. I did think her outfit was the best due to originality but that was due to #KimoNoSheBetterDontGate. People have been saying she’s the next Bianca but i have seen no heart or humility from her. Michelle is picking up the show boating so I’m hoping Bob gets called out more in future. Prediction: Runner Up.

Chi Chi Devayne: Based on the meet the queens interview I thought Chi Chi was going to go home first (I did also think Naysha was going to win though so lol) she just seemed very fed up with the whole thing. When she first entered the work room in her trashion (Trash Fashion) I again thought that she was going home. However this opinion was changed after Bitch Perfect which she rightfully won hands down, even her snatch game was funny. But slowly we’re being revealed the apathetic side of Chi-Chi that I saw in her meet the queens. Her attitude of “I can’t afford to be Glamorous” is pretty unacceptable, especially considering she made her entire Madonna outfit from scratch. Once she feels challenged she doesn’t try at all which is a killer on Drag Race. Also wearing the same boots THREE TIMES (Bitch Perfect, New Wave Queens x2) THAT IS DIABOLICAL. Prediction: 6th Place

Derrick Barry: Oh Derrick, from the bottom of my broken heart I wanted you to win at least once. Everyone had the same problem with Derrick “You’ve got to be more than Britney” which she’s been trying to do, she’s only gone for a Britney look twice, one of which was when she impersonated her in snatch game but it’s still not been working out for her. I think this is due to the fact that in drag she’s always been impersonating Britney so we’re basically watch her create Derrick Barry’s drag personality throughout the course of the show. The last episode her lip sync was killer and that end speech (”May I please leave the stage now?”) felt very real and heartfelt and I think thats given her a kick that will keep her in the competition… for another episode…. Prediction: 5th Place

Kim Chi: Winning the first challenge always puts you in a good position… being the bottom three the very next week does not. Kim Chi is very aesthetically pleasing and is very sweet… that’s about it tbh. She’s a good soul but I really dont see much else in her, and from what I’ve seen of her lip syncs online I can’t imagine seeing a show of hers. Sorry Kim, as much as I want to like you I think you’ve been overhyped by fans :’( Prediction: Runner Up

Naomi Smalls: Following on from nothing but aesthetics we have Naomi who has had the same outfit 6 weeks in a row but won once she made it actually suit the challenge. Sorry Nomi but how can you expect to win when so far you’ve worn a bikini and satin wrap for the entire season. Yes you have legs up to your asshole we saw that week 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 and 6, they’ve all been good looks but its become very boring. Also doesn’t anyone else notice that her scarecrow look was the same as her Pride Floats look but with a fabric boat?? I digress… Prediction: 4th Place

Thorgy Thor: And here comes the unexpected one, I totally did not think I was going to like Thorgy, but much like the rest of my favourites they have totally grown on me. Thorgy is funny without trying or throwing it into your face, multi-talented as fuuuuck and has had stellar looks. Plus a heart of gold. It’s ridiculous that she still hasn’t won a challenge because Bob has been rewarded for being Bobnoxious. Her RuCo’s Empire was perfection, she actually acted as the character not just herself with a script and her roller girl look was way better than Bobs amazon prime $29 jumpsuit. Not to mention her snatch game being spot on and consistent, I feel as though she would have won had there not been #KimoNoSheBetterDontGate. Hopefully once Bob gets called out for his self-centredness justice will be given to Thorgy will be given the justice she deserves. She already has the fan vote so she just needs to make it to top 3 and she has a great chance of winning. Prediction: Winner

Six years have gone by in the halls of McKinley High. Countless
moments of singing, countless moments of laughing and most importantly,
countless moments of crying. The characters from Glee, despite their generic outlook, do hold a sense of creativity within
them. So between Kurt Hummel, Santana Lopez and plenty more, we chose our top ten characters that have been appeared in the show – going all the way back to the first episode! So between

author’s note: This is a rather angsty scenario because I’ve been listening to Cho Hyung Woo’s “Someone I Know” and oh my goodness that song <3 idk it’s so beautiful and perfect that I just had to write a little something based off of the lyrics, hence the title is the same as the song. I went ahead and put a read more since its long. My song recommendation is (if you couldn’t tell) Cho Hyung Woo’s “Someone I Know” and also “Last Carnival” by Norihiro Tsuru

I’ve been
reserving my thoughts on Castle’s season 8, despite all indications that it
was going to be very different from the show I know, because I wanted to wait
and see first.

Now that we’re
four episodes into the new season, I can safely say that the show I once loved
is gone.

The fact
that they broke up Castle and Beckett is not even what bothers me. I actually
think breaking them up had good story potential and could lead to an
interesting arc. Castle and Beckett’s relationship had become so “one note” and disinteresting.
There were never any major challenges or obstacles that they had to overcome
together. They were unnaturally happy all the time. There were no fights, and
even if there was any disagreement, it was never really explored and it was
either quickly brushed over or fixed by one of them throwing a corny line. All
the major milestones of their relationship were botched. The first date, the
first “I love you”, the first fight, talk about where their relationship was
going, moving in together, learning to live in each other’s space, merging
their lives together, figuring out how Beckett was going to fit into Castle’s
relationship with his daughter and the other way around, the proposal, the
wedding, conversation about Castle’s previous marriages and how this one was
going to be different, Kate wanting to learn more about Castle, like why he
wanted to be a writer, which is something that was hinted at since season 2,
and so many other milestones of what a realistic relationship would be in these
circumstances that were never really explored on the show. Even when they were,
they were sacrificed in the name of a dramatic cliffhanger, so it either didn’t
make sense or it was tainted by poor timing and bad circumstances. On top of
all this, SK and NF’s chemistry really wasn’t working. Most intimate scenes looked awkward and Castle looked more in love with Kate in s1-s4 than ever since they’d been together.

So, for me,
a shake-up was definitely needed. Breaking them up and rebuilding them from
scratch actually sounded like a good idea.

But these
writers forget that you can’t just hit reset and pretend this is season 3. You
can’t just do a do-over. Castle and Beckett have been together for 3 years and
are actually married. This can’t be like
season 3. Having Castle play the annoying 9-year-old that chases his wife
around against her wishes is not cute or funny when you’re talking about a
grown man that was just dumped by his wife for no reason whatsoever. It just makes him look like a doormat and
worst of all, dumb. You could maybe argue that there was always a hint of a
doormat in him (which I don’t necessarily agree, but I can see the point), but he
was never dumb.

Stiles
Jackson was being an ass, again. He was being mean to Stiles and picking on him
for not being good enough for lacrosse and never having a girlfriend. He kept
telling Stiles that he’d never have a girlfriend, he’s not good enough and
frankly, Stiles had had enough and said he could easily get a girlfriend if he
tried which resulted in Jackson betting he couldn’t. Stiles realised he made a
big mistake when Jackson chose the girl; you. You being the other Lydia. Before
Allison, it was just you and Lydia as the popular girls, the two of you
practically ran the school, and still do. With Allison dating Scott and Lydia
claimed by Jackson himself, that left you. Jackson thought that it was an easy
win but you thought Stiles’ awkward and shy behaviour when he tried to ask you out was just
adorable and agreed to one date.
As you walked through the halls the day after your date, which wasn’t as bad
as you expected- you actually liked his sarcasm, sass and joking around and
thought he was adorable- you happened to overhear his conversation with
Jackson. Neither of them knew you were there as you stayed hidden while
listening in. ‘Guess you won the bet. She’s softer than Lydia, too nice.’
Jackson sounded a tad annoyed. ‘Here, $40.’ ‘Keep it. You made me ask a very
nice person on a date who actually said yes, actually showed up and was good
company and didn’t get annoyed at my sarcasm and laughed at my jokes. I should
thank you, buddy.’ Stiles rambled on and you smiled to yourself that Stiles
just turned down the bet and actually liked you. You were always in Lydia’s
shadow. The other one. No one really knew you and you never really had a proper
boyfriend that Lydia hadn’t forced at you. ‘Your loss. She probably won’t go out with
you again though, she just said yes out of pity.’ Jackson was clearly trying to
make himself feel better, personally, you didn’t like him. You just accepted
him for Lydia’s sake. ‘Even if she doesn’t, I went on a date with a beautiful
girl and had fun. Thanks.’ You heard Stiles starting to walk away from both you
and Jackson.
When you saw Stiles alone at his locker later that day, you went for it. Mostly
because you like him, but partly because you wanted it to be a big “fuck you”
to Jackson. ‘Stiles. Hey. I had fun last night and wondered if you wanted to do
it again.’ You were probably just as awkward as him, who stood in shock for at
least 2 minutes. ‘What? Y-yeah. Sure. Of course. Really?’ You laughed,
‘really.’

Scott
Stiles had bet that Scott wouldn’t ask you out. You were new and had caught
Scott’s eye, but he had just broken up with Allison Stiles felt he needed a
distraction from Allison and bet him to ask you out. You had said yes and went
to a party with him, yes, same as Allison. It was all fine, until Allison saw
the two of you dancing and he freaked out. He had told you to stay there and
went after her but after a while, he still hadn’t come back, so you went to
find him and over heard him say, ‘Stiles bet me to go out with her because he
said I needed to stop thinking about you but I can’t.’ You didn’t even bother
to interrupt, or stay. You just left. Stiles had noticed you. You weren’t angry
or anything like that, you were more fed up and a little amused. Scott had
messaged you, once; “Stiles said you left. Sorry
we bet on you, you’re actually really cool and both of would like to apologise
and get to know you better. Talk tomorrow at school?’ You simply
replied with “sure” before
going to bed. The three of you talked the next day and all became really good
friends, especially when you found out Scott was a were-wolf, which didn’t
phase you as you already knew all of that stuff from family friends, you were
just never involved before.

Derek
You were an omega. You had been walking through the woods of Beacon Hills. You
had just arrived and were only passing through but you were attacked by another
wolf. An alpha. An omega vs an alpha was basically suicide for an omega but you
had no other choice. You were actually doing pretty well, all things
considering, but you were getting increasingly weak and needed a long time to
heal. Derek and Peter had also been in the woods when they heard the commotion
and went to check it out to find you, covered in your own blood, fending off an
alpha. Derek was pretty impressed by your skills and determination, but you
weren’t going to last so he stepped in, Peter just watching because he ‘isn’t
strong enough’. You blacked out from blood loss so didn’t get to see how it all
turned out. You woke up in a loft. Derek’s loft, to be exact. He had helped you
and cleaned you up while you were out. Peter had noticed Derek and teased him
because he knew Derek liked you. Peter had bet that Derek wouldn’t tell you, in
fact, he bet that Derek would have you out of there the second you woke up. It
wasn’t a proper bet with money or anything, more of just teasing. But that
teasing led to you staying, becoming part of the pack, helping get rid of the
alphas and part of Derek’s life.

Isaac
It was Erica. Isaac had liked you since before he became a were-wolf but was
always too shy and scared of his father to talk to you. Erica found out almost
immediately after they became wolves and bet him $20 to finally ask you out.
You had also liked Isaac but the two of you never talked properly. You had
overheard the whole ‘bet’ conversation consisting of Erica making it and Isaac
at first not wanting to but agreed once she pushed. ‘Hey, y/n. I was wondering
if you’d like to go on a date with me.’ He acted all “cool” wearing his leather jacket
and everything. You liked the new confidence and the jacket but not so much the
bit of jackass he had picked up. ‘When at least some of the old Isaac makes an
appearance and this jackass phase leaves, ask me again.’ You got up from your
seat in the library and left. He never won the bet, but after you were in the
wrong place at the wrong time and found out about the supernatural and Isaac,
he told you everything and some of the old Isaac came back and that date
finally happened.

Jackson
You actually knew before you started dating. You were popular in the school,
Lydia level popular. You had heard the whole conversation between him and his
friends and decided to have a little fun of your own. You would flirt with
Jackson any chance you had and when he asked you out, you always said no. It
got to a point where Jackson no longer cared about the bet and was just getting
frustrated to why you were flirting and being nice to him but wouldn’t go out
with him. This went on for a few months and you started toning down the
flirting and being genuinely nice to him. Over the few months, Jackson had also
learnt some things about you and got to know you. The two of you started to
actually like each other and both forgot about the bet when you finally told each other and finally went on that date.

Aiden (not really a bet)
You were the chosen member of the Scooby gang. Ethan went for Danny and Aiden
to you, Scott’s twin sister, by orders of Deucalion. At first, he was just
someone to have fun with. You had broken up with your boyfriend due to the pack
secrets that you couldn’t tell him, so you didn’t want a relationship. You then
found out he was part of the alpha pack. Did that matter? Not to you. The two
of you rarely actually talked and truthfully, the two of you felt free from the
were-wolf shit when you had your fun together. However, your stupid heart got
in the way and started to feel something towards him. The same for him to you.
You knew that Aiden only spent his time with you because of Decalion’s orders,
get close to the true alpha’s sister. This meant that you thought Aiden didn’t
have any real feelings towards you. After the alpha pack was done with, he
started to show he cared but you wanted him to show he cared for the pack as
well as just you, but gave him a chance on that basis. He was proving himself
and still had a way to go, but you knew he was trying. The two of you got
closer and you were devastated when he died.